Ehren Starks

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma but raised in Kansas City, Missouri. Currently attending the University of Kansas studying Art History Drawing and Painting. Ehren now lives in Lawrence, Kansas, USA. He began playing at the age of five under the Suzuki theory and continued with lessons until the age of 18 or so. He became bored with playing other peoples songs and the piano in general. He really started making a lot of progress when he got into improvising and composing his own pieces. This was around the age of 13 or 14. Ehren recorded and released his first solo album at the age of 17. The Depths of a Year was written from the age of 18 to 19 while he first attended the University of Kansas. Much of the album came from a need to cope with a failed relationship. He wrote the album and called Kate who he barely knew. He did know she could play and she gladly joined on. He dropped out of school to play piano and organ with a rock and roll band called The Gadjits ( now The Architects) and a band called The Belles. He toured for two and a half years, playing over 300 shows in all of North America and the UK. Being burnt out by the road and rough lifestyle, he has happily returned to school to study visual arts and focus on composing, drawing from the likes of Radiohead, Interpol, and many others. He is now 22 and hopes to keep pushing the boundaries of his creativity and composing in general. Lines Build Walls, his second album took two to three years to write and complete. Most of that time was spent constructing the vision of a cohesive album before it was ever written. Ehren listened to hundreds of albums while on tour with his band and patiently developed the sound he wanted. He grew from listening to Wilco (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot), Interpol, New Order (Get Ready), Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (B.R.M.C.), Medeski Martin and Wood, Spoon (Girls Can Tell), Primal Scream, Ryan Adams (Heartbreaker), and Radiohead (everything). The discovery of Amnesiac, the first Radiohead album he heard and then OK Computer turned his world of music on its head. All these albums posses the juxtaposition of beauty, anger, joy, and melancholy...which is something that he strives for. As time passed, his inspiration was fueled by two emerging themes, true love and the end of the world, and how these two are interconnected. Each song title was meticulously chosen as well as the album title, Lines Build Walls, the idea that once you cross a certain point you can never go back (maybe). Pianist Ehren Starks is joined by Kate Gurba on cello for this album of Ehren's music "The Depths of a Year." Ehren approached Kate Gurba to work with him to perform on this album, to add the sultry continuous tone of the cello the Ehren's minimalist, jazzy piano textures. "The Depths of a Year" essentially documents a relationship. This inspiration produces a wide range of songs and emotions, ranging from jazz and classical to new age. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.